Baseball: WIldcats on the right track

There are a few more smiles around the Weymouth baseball team these days.

The Wildcats after winning their first game of the season over Natick by a 5-0 score, lost their next four games and had 14 hits in their four setbacks.

The offense for Weymouth is starting to come together and the victories are starting to pile up and it could not come at a better time.

Weymouth has games with Braintree, Norwood, Framingham, Walpole and Newton North ahead.

Mark Ducharme

There are a few more smiles around the Weymouth baseball team these days.

The Wildcats after winning their first game of the season over Natick by a 5-0 score, lost their next four games and had 14 hits in their four setbacks.

The offense for Weymouth is starting to come together and the victories are starting to pile up and it could not come at a better time.

Weymouth has games with Braintree, Norwood, Framingham, Walpole and Newton North ahead.

Walpole is considered the team to beat in the Bay State Conference and Weymouth lost its first game of the season to both Framingham and Newton North.

The Wildcats have gone back to hard work in order to turn things around.

“We are focusing on working on having good at bats,” said Dolan. “We are playing well. There were a lot of long faces when we were 1-4, but we are playing well and have won our last four games in a row.”

“The Bay State Conference is a very tough league.”

The more patient Wildcats offense came through with 14 hits in their 6-3 win over Needham and they moved runners around the bases to pull out a 3-2 triumph over Brookline at home.

The Weymouth offense then bounced back and erupted for a 12-0 victory in a game that was called after seven innings because of the slam rule.

“Ryan Peterson pitched a great game for us against Wellesley,” Dolan said. “We were able to jump on them early.”

Peterson pitched six innings and Jack Lehan pitched a scoreless seventh inning, while Ozzy Colarusso had three hits to lead the offense.

The Brookline game came down to a couple of strong pitching effort for the Wildcats. Weymouth also moved runners along to get the offense that they would need to support their strong pitching.

“Scott Hall pitched a great game for us,” said Dolan. “Ryan Jones did a great job of getting a six-out save. Brookline is the only team in the league that has defeated Walpole so far.”

“We got some bunts down and we stole some bases at key times. We did a good job of moving runners.”

Hall struck out six and walked one and allowed two runs in seven innings as he left the game with a 3-2 lead and Jones, a sophomore retired all six batters that he faced to pick up the save.

The Wildcats scored a run in the third inning as Colarusso walked and stole second and scored on Brian Biagini's single to right to give Weymouth the first run of the game.

They added two runs in the sixth inning to take a 3-2 lead. Pat Murray, who had two hits in the game doubled in P.J. McElroy and he later scored on a Mike Umano ground out.

The Wildcats had come off a 14-hit attack in their 6-3 win over Needham.

They had five different players get multiple hits in the game.

Another key was the pitching of Sam McKay. The senior right-hander struck out 11 in eight innings of work and left with a 6-3 lead.

Jon Hachey pitched a perfect ninth inning to get the save for the Wildcats.

“Sammy was just great,” said Dolan. “He retired the first 15 batters that he faced.”

It was the second time that McKay had carried a perfect game into the sixth inning. He retired the first 17 Dedham batters and left with a no-decision after pitching four-hit shutout ball for eight innings.

He also had two hits in the game including a two-run double.

Colarusso had three hits to lead the Wildcats offense. Biagini, Murray and Umano all added two hits each in the Needham win.